January 2008 The stroke of midnight on December 31, 2007 found me in a garden singing in front of a fire as fireworks went off all around me. Happy New Year! The next day I left for Europe, then India

On New Year’s Eve I sought to satiate myself with non-standard definitions of English words, some from the Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce’s admirably cynical lexicon (available now online) and others from elsewhere (a favorite, from George Santayana: “fanaticism: redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”). I also happened upon a list of words that do not yet exist but should, including stupiphany: “the realization that you have been a complete idiot for way too long.”

Literacy promotes a certain fascination with words, which is why many people today know that the Inuit have 30-odd words for “snow.” But how many people know that Albanians have 27 words for “mustache”—and another 27 for “eyebrows”? I certainly did not, until The Meaning of Tingo, by Adam Jacot de Boinod, provided me a whole list of obscure words with no equivalents in the English language. The list includes:

bakku-shan (Japanese): a girl who when seen from behind looks as though she might be pretty, but when seen from the front is not

desus (Indonesian): the quiet, smooth sound of someone farting, not very loudly

fucha (Portuguese): to use company time and resources for one’s own purposes

koshatnik (Russian): a dealer in stolen cats

kucir (Indonesian): a tuft of hair left to grow atop an otherwise bald head

latah (Indonesian): the uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things

nylentik (Indonesian): to flick someone on the ear with the middle finger

o ka la nokonoko (Hawaiian): day spent in nervous anticipation of a coughing spell

pomicione (Italian): a man who seizes any chance of being in close physical contact with a woman

seigneur terrasse (French): someone who spends time, but not money, at a café

torschlusspanik (German): the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older

tsui-giri (Japanese, samurai-era): to try out a new sword on a passer-by

zechpreller (German): a person who leaves without paying the bill

The word tingo itself comes from the Pascuense language of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and is particularly evocative. Tingo: borrowing things from a friend’s house, one by one, until he has nothing left.

May we all be protected from that fate, during the year 2008!

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